The invention relates to a process for conversion of an olefinically unsaturated organic compound with hydrogen and/or carbon monoxide in the presence of a catalyst consisting of a particle-shape, solid, porous carrier in the pores of which a catalytically active metallic complex, dissolved in a solvent which is slightly volatile under the reaction conditions, is present.
The invention relates in particular to hydroformylation of unsaturated compounds, which means conversion with carbon monoxide and hydrogen into an aldehyde with one additional carbon atom in the molecule.
It is known for the hydroformylation to be carried out with application of a catalytically active metallo-organic complex. By the term metallo-organic complex is meant a compound consisting of a central metal atom and one or more ligands, the central metal atom being a transition metal, like rhodium, ruthenium or cobalt. By the term ligand is meant an atom, radical, ion or molecule that can be bound to the central metal atom in a polyatom compound, for instance hydrogen, carbon monoxide and triphenylphosphine, in rhodiumhydridocarbonyltris (triphenylphosphine).
Hydroformylation, carbonylation or hydrogenation of unsaturated compounds can be carried out with application of a solution of a catalytically active metallic complex. However, this involves certain problems connected with recovery of the reagents and loss of solvent and metallic complex. It is also possible for the metallic complex to be physically or chemically bound to a solid carrier, so that a heterogeneous catalyst is obtained. In this case, however, the life of the catalyst is still too small for technical application owing to deactivation and rinse-off of the catalytically active complex. The advantages entailed by application of a heterogeneous catalyst can also be achieved by dissolving the catalytically active metallic complex in a solvent which is slightly volatile under the reaction conditions to be applied and by impregnating the pores of a porous, solid carrier with a solution of this kind, see British Patent Specification 1,185,453. These catalysts are sometimes called `Supported Liquid Phase Catalyst` (SLPC). The solvent may be a hydrocarbon, alcohol, carboxylic acid or an ester. The activity of the known SLPC catalyst is rather low however, while also the selectivity, that means the ratio between the primary and branched aldehydes produced from .alpha.-olefins, is only low.